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Lindsey Ward

Prof. Nadine Gordon

UWRT 1103

3/22/17

The Effect of the Nazi Regime on Children

During World War II, the Nazi controlled German government was known for their

ruthless tactics against the Jewish people and other minorities in Germany. But while the

attention of the world was focused on the collective atrocities committed against the Jewish

people, the Nazi party was shaping their view of Germany in the children. The tactics the Nazis

used focused on children because the party knew that the children, and their views, would shape

how the world would grow. The actions of the members of the Nazi party towards their own

children was meant to change their thinking and to show them how true Germans act, think, and

function and have the children grow up with those ideals. On the other side, the Nazi party

thought the Jewish people were less than human and rather than assimilating and changing those

children they sought to destroy them and therefore the traditions and cultures of their people.

With this thinking in mind, it is very evident how the Nazis thought and their ideal for the future

was shaped in their actions towards children.

Actions to shape the thoughts of their own children

The reign of the Nazi party in Germany lasted 12 years, and in that time the Nazi party focused

heavily on the children who they saw as the future of the Nazi party. The leader of the Nazi party

Hitler expressed how vital he thought children were to the success of the Nazi party, dedicating
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many pages of his book, Mein Kampf, to Aryan youth (Johnson 263). Once Hitler became the

Fhrer (the father of the German state) he started his campaign to support Aryan children and

shape them to be the future leaders of the Nazi party. The Aryan race was the ideal type person

in Hitlers eyes and they characteristically had white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. These

people were treated as the future of the Nazi party and were raised to carry on the traditions and

views of the party. The main ways that the Nazis influenced these children was through state

controlled schooling and, eventually, mandatory afterschool programs designed to glorify the

views of the Nazis. In German schools, many things were changed when the Third Reich came to

power, many textbooks were removed from the schools, teachers whom the state did not think

they could control were fired, and many parts of the curriculum were changed to promote Nazi

views and a love for Hitler ("Indoctrinating Youth"). Hitler Youth and the League of German

Girls were afterschool programs that were designed by the Nazi state to promote socialism and

love for the German state. Both schools and Hitler youth programs were used to teach children

about the glory of Germany and turn the children into race-conscious, obedient, self-sacrificing

Germans who would be willing to die for Fhrer and Fatherland ("Indoctrinating Youth").

How those actions shaped their thinking

The way many of these children were raised heavily altered their thinking. From ideas about how

one race was superior than all others to teaching a biased history of the world, it was hard for

children not to fully believe in what the Nazi party wanted them to learn. The youth focused

campaign to promote socialism among the children of the Nazi party created excitement among

the children to become better Germans and make their country better for it. The purpose of much

of the Hitler youth activities was to erase any kind of class lines the children had in their minds.

They all wore the same uniform and did the same activities and for men when they turned 18
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they were required to serve on the battle field or as a part of the labor service during world war

two. Later in the war, when the Nazi party became even more desperate, the party started

enlisting children younger than 16 into their forces (Indoctrinating Youth"). After the war was

over, many Nazi influenced youth started guerrilla groups and fought back against the

controlling Allied forces. The Allied forces then started a de-Nazification process amongst the

children to try and counter when the Nazi party had taught the children during this wartime

(Indoctrinating Youth"). Once these children grew up, their anti-semantic views stayed the

same, for the most part, in that generation. In a study about the views of German people on the

Jewish population, shown in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS),

17% of respondents indicated that Jews should blame themselves for their own persecution,

25.7% did not like the idea of a Jew marrying into their family, and 21.5% thought that Jews

should not have equal rights to non-Jews ("The Long-Lasting). These results did vary by

region in Germany, where the southern part of Germany had more anti-sematic views the

northern part of Germany felt that Jewish people should be equal to all others ("The Long-

Lasting). Obviously, these results are not a full representation of the children who

participated in the Nazi youth programs. With the help of the United states and other democratic

nations many of these children could readjust to society

Actions against Jewish children

The actions that the Nazi party took against the Jewish children during World War II are well

known but many of the horrors the children went through were overshadowed by the overall

atrocities of the Holocaust. The Nazi party sent many of the Jewish people whom were in

Germany and the Nazi controlled regions to concentration and death camps. When Families and

children would arrive at these camps one of the first things they would encounter was two gates
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where people would be ushered to the left or to the right. Most of the time children would be sent

to the side where the people whom the Nazi soldiers deemed unfit for work would go. These

children would be sent to gas chambers or killed just because the Nazi guards did not see any

value in their life. This was the reality for many children who were under the age of about twelve

who were forced to go to these camps. Older children who looked fit and strong enough to do the

work of an adult were kept alive. At some concentration camps, there were Nazi doctors who

conducted scientific experiments on some of the children to test different limits of human

resistance. A popular target of these medical experiments were twins. One example of these

medical tests was at the Auschwitz concentration camp where Dr. Josef Mengele injected

coliform into the hearts of twins to see if their death would be identical (History.com Staff).

Concentration camps were not the only places where Jewish children and their families were

sent. Ghettos were another place where they could be sent; but, these places were just as bad as

the concentration camps because of the condition of Ghettos, the treatment of the people, and the

constant fear of death. There was a story about a young boy in one of the books I read that was

his personal account of his life in the Riga Ghetto. He was only 8 when he was sent the Ghetto

and he arrived there with his brother sister and his parents. Only him and his bother survived; his

sister was taken to Auschwitz during a roundup of children in the Ghetto, his father was sent to a

concentration camp after being caught with bread, and his mother died also but he did not know

how or where (Holliday 55-66). These circumstances that these people were under just shows

how horribly the Nazi soldiers treated them and how they were so cruel to them just to be cruel.
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How those actions shaped the thinking of those who survived

Many of the survivors of the Holocaust can sometimes have a hard time talking about their life

during that time. Some of the survivors that do share their stories obviously have hard time

coping with the realities of their past while other can tell their story frankly and be open about

their experiences. Many children during the time of the Holocaust had to grow up very fast and

they did not get to experience many things that normal children would be able to do. This new

reality that many children found themselves in forced them to witness mass atrocities, beg to be

killed, and to even question their own religion. These circumstances while growing up lead many

children to suffer PTSD and have difficulties going into adulthood (Psychological). Most of

the survivors who are alive today were young children during the holocaust. Their parents have

since passed away and older siblings as well but these people still recall the trauma that they

suffered as children. According to Dr. Marinus van IJzendoorn of Leiden University as these

survivors approach old age, they face new challenges, including retirement, declining health

and losing a spouse, and this may reactivate their extreme early stresses (Psychological).

May studies have shown that Holocaust survivors who live in Israel seem to be in a better

psychological state than survivors who live in other countries. I believe this is because they feel

safe in this place and they are surrounded by their religion.

The Nazi party during WWII tried to shape their idyllic future in the children living in Germany

and other occupied Nazi territories. The third Richie molded their army of Aryan children who

would give anything to protect their country. They also instilled terror and mentally traumatized

millions of children, if they did not kill them first. The members of the Nazi party seemed to try

and make good on their promise of creating a pure Aryan nation. Thankfully their vison of the

future was destroyed by the allied powers and the oppressed were set free; and the children who
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had their minds controlled by the German state were taught democracy and were de-Nazified if

you will. After the fall of the Third Reich, only time would be able to tell how the children of this

time grew and developed into adults.

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Works Cited

"Indoctrinating Youth."United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 07 May 2017.

"Psychological Pain of Holocaust Still Haunts Survivors."American Psychological Association.

American Psychological Association, 20 Sept. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Holliday, Laurel. Children in the Holocaust and World War Two: their secret diaries. N.p.:

Pocket , n.d.

Johnson, Eric A. The Nazi terror: The Gestapo, Jews and ordinary Germans. London: John

Murray, 2002.

Martinez-Conde, Susana. "The Long-Lasting Effects of Nazi Indoctrination." Scientific

American Blog Network. Scientific American , 12 July 2015. Web. 07 May 2017.

History.com Staff. "Auschwitz." History.com. 2009. Accessed March 16, 2017.